Ventura

A:

Ventura County school districts will have to shed over $50 million when the first dollar goes into Proposition 2's School Account. This will force the reduction of Ventura school districts' local carryover funds from an average of 11% now, to just 6%.

Compare these allowed carryovers with California Department of Education and Government Finance Officers Association recommendations of 15-17% in reserves -- and the state's late payments to schools in all recent fiscal years. Instead of being able to rebuild reserves, now that the worst of the State's wall-of-debt deferrals is supposed to be over, Ventura County schools will be forced to carry just $65 million forward.

When the next downturn hits, Ventura County districts will have almost no cushion -- note that the State had not paid Ventura districts $167 million it owed them in June 2012, $77 million in June 2013, and $78 million just this June 30th, a few months ago (incidentally, two fiscal years after Prop 30 passed). Districts would have been unable to fund these internally; instead they would have had to borrow or slash instruction.

Note that two of the districts are shown in red because the California Department of Education "qualified" its certification of these districts' financial condition during some or all of the 2012-2014 period. Note also that the average reserves carried by these districts is just 6%, while the healthier districts carry an average of 12%.